Cold air intake

[rjohns]

I just ordered a cold air intake for my 2004.5 LLY. I am not looking for any more horse power just better fuel milage. This $4 a gallon diesel is killing me. Is this going to improve my fuel milage or do I need to modify my exaust system to? I was getting about 16 MPG pulling my boat and about 10 MPH pulling my 35 foot 5th wheel camper so anything will help. I hardly ever drive it unless I am pulling something so I dont know what it gets naked. Has anyone else tried this upgrade to see if it helps on fuel milage?

[terryk]

Slowing down will probably gain you more but some people claim tow tunes help. I get 11-12 towing 11k lb 5th wheel at 60 MPH. I might squeeze out a bit more slowing down to 55.

Which cold air intake did you order?

[rjohns]

Its a AEM Brute Force Intake and I dont usually pull my boat or camper but 60MPh, but it is a 21foot stratos with a 250 yamaha and my camper weighs 14k so I am pulling a pretty good load either way. I dont have any complaints about the HP, and I dont expect to get great fuel milage pulling these kind of loads, I just thought this CAI might help me a little bit.

[kmac2003]

Your mpg doesn't sound out of line especially with the 14K fifth wheel. My experience has been the LLY is a little less efficient than the LB7 or LBZ. Not sure how much a good mileage tune with EGR turned off and cat delete would get on an LLY. I picked up about 1.5-2.0 mpg unloaded converting my LB7 California emissions to "federal" by flashing in a federal calibration (shut off EGR) and replacing the front pipe/DOC with a federal straight front pipe. Have not towed at all with it since the "federal" conversion. Obviously, all the LLY's have EGR so you would probably need an aftermarket tune to take advantage of shutting off EGR.

[rjohns]

Thanks for the help. I bought the truck used in 08 and it had 53k on it and I put a set of injectors in it at 125k but other than that I have done nothing but drive it. It now has 148k on it and still runs and drives very good. It is a long wheel base 4 door and it pulls my camper very well. I have priced some of the new trucks but if I want to retire from my job in the next 10 years I will keep driving this one. I am going to see what this CAI does for it first and go from there.

[terryk]

Ok, slowing down more won't help.

14k is a good load. I agree with rjohns, your MPG isn't out off line at all.

[frysl]

If you look over the dyno info provided by most cold air intake manufacturer's, there is little to no benefit unless you are running at WOT.

[PrivatePilot]

Thread moved to Fuel System, Air, Exhaust, & Emissions Upgrades forum.

[k9duramax]

You won't see any noticeable difference in mpg- I'm betting less than .25 mpg, if that.

[submarinedonks]

.25 mpg? Try lower - then try to calculate that!!!! You may notice a drop in EGTs. Your towing mpgs are pretty much in-line with what I get towing a 9k lb travel trailer. There are very few things that will affect mpg increase - none are cheap. Look in the forum for:
1) Tuners/Tunes - Lost sof tuners + EFI Live tunes seem to be choice of most
2) DPF delete
3) EGR block
4) PCV reroute
5) Turbo-back exhaust
Plus many more for the transmission and engine set-up including fuel system upgrades etc.......
Mods can become addictive.... Once you start - see a therapist weekly to avoid falling into the abyss of 1000 HP and 1100 ft-lbs of tourqe!!!
!

Originally Posted by k9duramax

You won't see any noticeable difference in mpg- I'm betting less than .25 mpg, if that.